Yes, that makes perfect sense. When people start walking away from stadiums, television ratings will drop. No, television ratings will drop when people stop watching games on television.

Consumers are people who consume the product, regardless of what they spend or the medium they use. I’m sorry you don’t understand that. It’s really fundamental economics. The market value of the product will decrease when overall demand for the product decreases–when people stop buying tickets and stop watching on television. When they stop watching on television, ratings decrease, advertisers pull their money, and television networks no longer pay billions in revenues to the owners which are then divided with the players.

When the market demand for the product decreases, the market value of the product will decrease and prices will drop for consumers. Not only will ticket prices drop, but so will costs of DirecTV packages. These are basic economic principles. Again, it is not your pennies, but your pennies in combination with all the other pennies that make these wheels turn.

If you want consumers to walk away, then you have to walk away from your television set … and get a whole lot of other people to walk away from theirs. That is not going to happen and that is why the NFL is not concerned about our threat. I am not defending the system but merely pointing out an economic reality. Despite all the ballyhoo on PFT about people walking away from the NFL, they aren’t even behind in ticket sales.

Personally, I have no problem with the market realities of football and have no intention of abandoning the NFL. I simply hope the players get a favorable contract without having to pursue the antitrust case to its conclusion. And I’d like this to end before it cuts into the season.

Come talk to me when my nickel a week (if I so choose to watch a grabage product) is buying Tony Romo a condo in Maui. It’s not moral superiority – but a statement of fact. The electric company makes more money off me on any given Sunday than the NFL. Get real. When the fans start walking away from the games – that’s when the television will make its way down. When people stop purchasing from NFL Properties, another big revenue hit is in store. When these businesses fail to consider the consumer – it’s time for the consumer to walk away – not defend them. I support neither side. I’m on my side – the fan.

I was being polite. I’m not making my point because you can’t grasp the concept of consumerism. If you watch games, you are a consumer and help create the large market for the NFL that drives ticket and merchandise prices and player salaries. But you don’t get that and will continue to claim a moral superiority you don’t merit. Carry on.

]]>By: amandalovesthecowboyshttp://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/06/06/nfl-plans-for-season-as-short-as-eight-games/#comment-1090149
Tue, 07 Jun 2011 20:11:07 +0000http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=134256#comment-1090149Ive heard a few ppl say they will not watch if it’s only 8 games. Like I mentioned before, Im sure you will. Even if some fans do indeed boycott the NFL there’s still gonna be those fans who take what they can get. Hey football is like crack to some ppl(me for example) lol. After the season my Boys had.. I need a fresh start, even if its only 8 games. If a team with very few wins gets to the playoffs or SB well now we know how it feels like for the NFC WEST teams haha
]]>By: amandalovesthecowboyshttp://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/06/06/nfl-plans-for-season-as-short-as-eight-games/#comment-1090139
Tue, 07 Jun 2011 20:05:27 +0000http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=134256#comment-1090139thephantomstranger says:
What’s the problem? Last year, a MEDIOCRE team snuck into the playoffs because of two bad officiating calls, got hot, and won the Super Bowl and nobody complains that it isn’t legitimate.

Im not even a Packers fan but cmon man!!!!! As a matter of fact, GB opened up an industrial size can of whoop a*S on my team. But thankfully that loss lead to our coach being fired.

Perhaps you are not making your point because your point is lacking??? Not one player will be feeding tehir bloated wallet at my expense. Not one owner will be able to overspend on the next Albert Haynesworth on my dime.

Despite all your concern over my pennies – I do not purchase product based on any fantasy filled commerical aired by any sponsor. If anything, the sponsors drive me complete away from their with their brainless jingles and otherwise annoying commericials. I dvr the games so I can fast forard through the mindless waste that they pitch. If I need sometething – I’ll go shopping.

You want to hook me – provide a quality product and stop patronizing me with hype you can’t live up to. Todays players are overpriced and overhyped….just like the peddlers that purchase commercials on any given Sunday.

That incidental penny is going to end up in their pocket regardless of what program is on my set, thanks to the satellite package – and not my viewoing habits. That contract amnount is predetermined.

]]>By: nahcouldntbethathttp://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/06/06/nfl-plans-for-season-as-short-as-eight-games/#comment-1089550
Tue, 07 Jun 2011 04:37:25 +0000http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=134256#comment-1089550I’m definitely not following the NFL through a half-season sprint next year. If they don’t play at least 14 games I’m going to find something else to do on Sundays in the fall and I’ll just keep doing that when they finally decide to grace us with their product.

1994 taught me that no sport is worth supporting when they’ve decided to turn the competition into a travesty or outright walkout on the fans. I gave up my Mets season tickets after that season and I have never purchased another ticket from them.

The Jets are really likely to wind up on that same ash heap if they cut the season short. They’re guaranteed to if the season is cancelled.

]]>By: anthonyfromstatenislandhttp://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/06/06/nfl-plans-for-season-as-short-as-eight-games/#comment-1089527
Tue, 07 Jun 2011 04:03:25 +0000http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=134256#comment-1089527There is one simple way to fend off any 4-4 or 3-5 team winning the Super Bowl – and that is to contract the playoff field to the top four teams in each conference, disregarding divisions as in 1982. This also shortens the postseason by one week (actually two if there is no week off between the conference title games and the Super Bowl), and pushes the drop-dead date back one more week.

Personally I’d hate to see this, but I suppose it is a viable option; and wouldn’t it be an exquisite irony if the road to the 18-game season begins with an 8-game season? Sort of like Columbus reaching the Far East by sailing west.

]]>By: bearsfannumber1http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/06/06/nfl-plans-for-season-as-short-as-eight-games/#comment-1089506
Tue, 07 Jun 2011 03:16:37 +0000http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=134256#comment-1089506An 8 season game? Really!!! WTF??? Might as well just give me a gun and shoot me down!! If I can’t have my football, then I dont want nothing!!! I want it ALL!!! Not just a measly 8 games! That’s just a tease in my book!! Get it together and if you can’t figure out what to do with the money, hand it over here. I will know what to do with it; along with about 50 million other people!!!!
]]>By: kidder95http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/06/06/nfl-plans-for-season-as-short-as-eight-games/#comment-1089477
Tue, 07 Jun 2011 02:26:41 +0000http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=134256#comment-1089477Eight game season will fit perfect with the conclusion of MLS.

Perhaps they should reduce the amount of games played to 8 every season. Think how much money the owners can save! They owners could then sue the ticket holders for the other 8 games cash.

I’m still not making the point. No individual’s pennies make these systems function, but they function as a result of our combined interest. So whether we’re major consumers who spend thousands of dollars or minor consumers who spend only pennies, as long as we consume, we help turn the wheel. The only way we absolve ourselves of any complicity is to stop consuming the product … in this case, to stop taking any interest in the game.

The NFL knows nearly all of us will return when the lockout ends–especially those of us who care enough to post on a site like this. Thus far, they’re not even suffering a drop in ticket sales. So no matter how much people post they’re not coming back, it doesn’t matter. The owners know they have us.

I seriously not coming back if that or anything remotely close to it happens.

………………….

Sure you will.

]]>By: patsandsoxhttp://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/06/06/nfl-plans-for-season-as-short-as-eight-games/#comment-1089234
Mon, 06 Jun 2011 21:22:48 +0000http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=134256#comment-1089234Will I watch an 8 game season? Probably I love the NFL. Will I like it? NO

Work it out a holes split the difference

]]>By: axesprayhttp://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/06/06/nfl-plans-for-season-as-short-as-eight-games/#comment-1089220
Mon, 06 Jun 2011 21:14:11 +0000http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=134256#comment-1089220thephantomstranger says:
What’s the problem? Last year, a MEDIOCRE team snuck into the playoffs because of two bad officiating calls, got hot, and won the Super Bowl and nobody complains that it isn’t legitimate.

^ Or that 1 team that was overhyped before the season began, only to choke and quit, then went on to get blown out 31-3 in it’s own house, then 21-3 by an awful Giant’s team, and then blown out 40-14 by Cutler’s Bears on MNF.
You know …That “MEDIOCRE” team that only gets to brag about that time they beat the beyond awful Cardinals & Cowboys.

]]>By: just4givenhttp://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/06/06/nfl-plans-for-season-as-short-as-eight-games/#comment-1089190
Mon, 06 Jun 2011 20:56:30 +0000http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=134256#comment-1089190@ vadog – I remember those sour seasons very well myself. As a Packer fan, I can honestly say that some of your 70’s Vikings teams would walk through today’s watered down NFL competition.
That was an era where receivers could actually catch a football in traffic, running backs like Chuck Foreman, John Brockington, Franco Harris and Larry Csonka carried piles of defenders for that extra yard rather than lay down to avoid an injury – and rarely fumbled in the process. Defensive backs could actually cover and players knew how to tackle.

Why shouldn’t we walk away from the sport we love? The sport we love is barely recognizable.

First off, I was not ridiculing movie lovers. That was in response to the assertion that actors and models made more than Tom Brady. As I said, I will let movie fans worry about that. I’m not a large movie fan – and could care less about models. Who are any of them that I should be concerned about? I’m a football fan that is coming unglued by watered down quality and whiny pro athletes – and the cost of attendance is staggering with today’s economic climate.

We both know that none of them are feeding their families off of the pennies a week that get divided up among the 200 stations that I have access to. It’s foolish to even suggest that I make a contribution.

There are dozens of channels that I never tune in to, yet they receive a few pennies a month to. We are not talking about a few pennies of indirect support. We are talking about the $400 or $500 a week of direct contribution to attend a game – or the – what $200 or so that I lay out for Sunday ticket.

And no – I will not be standing in line to purchase any NFL gear either.

]]>By: vadoghttp://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/06/06/nfl-plans-for-season-as-short-as-eight-games/#comment-1089132
Mon, 06 Jun 2011 20:21:16 +0000http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/?p=134256#comment-1089132I have been an avid NFL football fan for at least 43 of my 50 years…all of them a Vikings fan!! I know about dissappointment, frustration and perseverance…and, yes…I know about hope.

I keep coming to this site, and other sites as well, for some reason to hope that there will acutally be a season in 2011. I have seen very little that makes me hopeful for 2011…and an abbreviated season feels a lot like eating bologna when I was hoping for Prime Rib! Not very satisfying. I remember ’82 and ’87 very well. They weren’t satisfying in any way, shape or form. They included some of the worst football I have ever seen.

Like others, I used to be a BIG baseball fan…but between labor issues and the sterioids scandal, I just lost interest. I will look at box scores and standings every once in awhile…but, I really don’t care. I hate to say it, but I’m over being angry with the NFL and players…I am leaning towards…just not caring anymore. I’ve got better things to do with my time then being obsessed with football.